RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – For more than two hours Justices with the U.S Supreme Court listened to arguments as to what the 14th Amendment to the Constitution says and what it should mean.
Passed after the Civil War by the U.S Senate in 1866, the amendment was ratified by more than three-quarters of the states by 1868.
It essentially means that children born in this country are automatically U.S. citizens. They are afforded not only citizenship, but due process and equal opportunity under the law.
“That was for the children of slaves and I hope that the Supreme Court so rules,” said President Donald Trump prior to the supreme court hearing.
In 1898 a San Francisco born American Citizen Wong Kim Ark was not allowed back into this country after visiting his parents in China.
The Supreme Court at that time affirmed Ark’s Citizenship saying the wording in the amendment: “Subject to the jurisdiction thereof” to mean all children born in the U.S. automatically gained citizenship.
The 14th Amendment and what it means to children born in this country has been reaffirmed by courts several times. It means children can receive a free education in this country from kindergarten to 12th grade.
And for one professor who helps guide teachers in social studies, that education component is a building block to alliances and citizenship.
“Part of that is shared stories,” says Professor Ian McGregor with UNR’s Secondary Social Studies Education Program. “British citizenship, part of being British, they don’t talk about American Revolution. It is not part of being British. Where here, part of the American Revolution is quintennial to what it means to be American. It is part of that shared story. So the conversations we have, and the questions that arise like what values are we trying to transmit if any, right, and what does that look like?
If that education and conversation is limited to a few, McGregor fears citizenship and alliances will be broken along with a sense of stewardship to this country.
Other aspects of birthright citizenship will also be lost like the right to vote, the right to a jury trial, to hold public office, and the right to remain in this country.
Justices with the U.S. Supreme court will mull over what they heard in court on April 1, 2026, and render a decision and release it to the public.
Whatever that decision, it is expected to make history.
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